Good morning! I'm Chase Johnson!
I'm Ben Lickteig
And I'm Steven Courtney! Welcome to the "Bear
Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High
School.
About half of Garrigan's students are gone this weekend. They're down in St. Louis for the music tour. The students are enjoying luxury rooms at Raddison Hotel, and gourmet meals at places like the Hard Rock Café, Hooters, and McDonalds. They also spent a day at the Six Flags amusement park, took the tram ride to the top of the Gateway Arch, and went shopping at the Union Station Marketplace.
The point of the tour is music, of course, and there was a lot of music included on the way. The choir will be performing at mass at the historic Basilica of St. Louis-King, and both the band and choir will have a special instructional session at Washington University. The band's selections include "Light Eternal", "Black Tower Overture", "Bayside Portrait", and "Hosts of Freedom"; and the choir will be singing "Man of La Mancha", "Turn the World Around", "Every Time I Feel the Spirit", "Glory Be to God-Alleluia", and "Sing Me to Heaven". All the musicians will be returning Sunday night.
Another group will be taking off for Missouri next week. They're the math team, who for the second straight year qualified for the Great Plains Mathematics Championship. Next Thursday they'll be heading to Kansas City, where they'll spend the day competing against the top brains from all over the Midwest. Sophomores Steven Kellner and Rosalind Kirsch and freshman John Kohlhaas will be representing Garrigan in the competition.
Every math league competition includes several rounds. It begins with a power question, where the competitors take an hour to solve a complicated proof that is broken up into several parts. After that they take a general math test in the Team Round and answer a series of questions on a single theme in the Target Round. Next up is the Sprint Round, where time is the most important factor. In just one hour, each student has to answer as many tough questions as they can.
Probably the most interesting part of math competition is called the Relay Round. Here each of the three contestants gets a different challenging problem. They spend 10 minutes working on the problem, and then they pass their work on to the next person on their team. The next person picks up where they left off, and after another 10 minutes, the work goes on to the last person. Hopefully by the time all three team members have worked on it, they will have solved the problem.
As you can see, math league may not have the excitement of football or baseball. It's still a competition, though, and we know Garrigan's team will be trying hard to win. Last year the Bears finished in the top three schools in the Midwest, and even though this year's team is young, we're hoping they'll do well in competition this year.
Graduation is just around the corner for the Class of 2001. Most of the class has been together for thirteen long years since kindergarten. Others, like me, haven't been here as long, but are still very much a part of the senior class. The school baccalaureate mass will be next Thursday night at 7:30pm. Then Sunday, May 13, at 2pm we'll all walk across the stage and receive our diplomas.
There's still a few seniors left to shine our spotlight on. This week we're featuring Annette Long, Molly Meyer, Kristin Studer, and Chris Thilges. Here with the details on them are Brad Nelson and Scott McGuire.
Annette Long comes to Garrigan from Whittemore, and she is especially known for her accomplishments in music. She has won honors in both band and choir, and she's also active in publications and intramural basketball. Away from school you might see Annette working at Ampride or at the Whittemore Library. We wish her all the best in the future.
Molly Meyer is an Algona native who has been very active in sports. She has lettered in volleyball and softball, and in the past she was in track and choir. When she's not at school she works at the Dance Connection in Algona. She'll be off to college in the fall, and we wish her all the best.
Kristin Studer lives in rural Wesley. Over the years her activities have included basketball, volleyball, softball, band, and 4-H. Kristin is an honor student who also works at the Town Mart convenience store in Wesley. Good luck, Kristin!
Chris Thilges was all the All-District Team and the All-District Academic Team in football. He has also lettered in baseball and track. Chris is a National Honor Society Member who will be attending Boys' State this summer. We wish Chris, and all the seniors the very best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar this week, this weekend is the music trip to St. Louis. Tomorrow morning the softball team will have a Belgian waffle breakfast at the Rochleau Center at St. Cecelia's. Then all next week is National Teacher Appreciation Week.
Monday there's the North Central Conference Golf Meets. The girls will play at Webster City, and the boys are at Iowa Falls. Then on Tuesday there's girls' track districts, and the boys' track team runs at Forest City.
Wednesday night is the speech and drama awards potluck. Thursday there's girls' CYO golf. The math team leaves for Kansas City that day, and then Thursday night we'll have the baccalaureate mass, followed by an awards assembly and reception.
The math team competes on Friday. There's also boys' district golf that day and the North Central Conference girls track meet Friday night at Clarion.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us next week when we'll have a special show to say good-bye to the Bishop Garrigan Class of 2001!
